I will be a Nadiyator until the end of time. She tweeted me back during one of the early episodes, before she became as famous as she is now, and I STILL told every single person I met for the rest of the week.

Sanders has a shot in running his country in a way Corbyn doesn't though. Unless the EU ref causes the government to fall which I don't see happening.

The pictures are legitimately awful but the cost is sooo low. Weddings don’t have to cost the earth but the one thing to splash out on is a photographer in my opinion. They probably found her on one of those dodgy Facebook wedding pages where people write ‘can anyone do me a five tier cake for under £50?’

The vast majority top it up if you are on a permanent contract. I earn pretty much exactly the UK salary and a quick glance at the company maternity policy when I left showed I can easily take 9 months at a level near full pay.

Oooh a reply, how exciting! :) :) and does this mean I'm out of the greys?

Why thank you - ‘tis the highest of honours!

As a Brit I am SO GLAD you’ve covered this story. The situation in Northern Ireland is awful and it’s outrageous that women there are treated differently to those of us elsewhere. Get your shit together, Stormont.

I LOVE this post, which is far more eloquent than I could ever manage. I too have got into arguments about Queen V - the presumption she would be for women because she was one. If only it were that simple.

No, she won't be going to prison at all. The suspended sentence was, I think, the lightest sentence the clearly reluctant judge could give within the law.

In the UK, acupuncture is now provided on the NHS. Given how cash-strapped our health service is, treatments have to be able to point to some serious evidence to be funded. I too know people with serious conditions who have been grateful for it.

Not true - look at Quebec. So far the SNP are sailing through all their scandals - the bridge, all the expenses stuff that's already happened, the eye-watering deficit - but it can't be forever.

No, they’re really not. Beyond their opposition to the EU, UKIP’s views are actually pretty hard to pin down. In the run up to the election they kept announcing policies and then having their own candidates question them. A typical example is the views of their only MP, Douglas Carswell (who I’ve met and isn’t a bad…

Because he still did it better than Ed Miliband eating that poor, poor bacon sandwich.

THIS IS SUCH A GOOD IDEA

As a Brit, I’d like to cheerfully tell Mr Cruz that Europe is not a country. I bet he thinks Africa is a country too.

It’s not just Eastern Europe, it’s across Europe. Regional elections in Germany saw a party which has called for shooting migrants at the border as a last resort get 25% of the vote. They will now have representation in state parliaments.

Yep, there was widespread racism in the Metropolitan Police (title should have a capital P FYI, they are a specific London police force). It was uncovered by the treatment of Stephen Lawrence - black teen murdered whilst waiting for the bus. Turns out the Met tried to infiltrate his parents’ social circle so they…